Gardens
by Kesshin
Summary: One spring day, Ino finds solace in running and help in an unexpected place. Because it's tough losing someone you love. Because we all need somewhere to run to sometimes. Ino & Naruto friendship fic.


**Gardens**

By Kesshin

**Ch. 1** Running and Roses

_Heap no on this mound/ Roses that he loved so well_

_Why bewilder him with roses/That he cannot see or smell?_

Edna St. Vincent

"Spring is every Yamanaka's favorite season, Ino," her father told her when she was seven. They were sitting in a field of buttercups, the pale yellow of the flowers rivaling the brightness of the father and daughter's hair. He plucked one by the stem and smiled into it, "It's when things aren't so cold anymore. People wander outside, getting some hard-earned sunshine. Really gets the blood going, let me tell you!"

Ino grinned at her father, following his lead by pulling up a flower. The blossom was golden and soft. "Mom says that it's good for business, too," she added, sticking her nose into the bright bundle of petals, "She says you had better buy her a new dryer, or so help her, she'll give you a good beating, ninja or not."

Inoichi laughed heartily, scratching the back of his head. Ino loved the way he laughed. Sometimes she would put her head against his chest to hear it, feeling his steady heartbeat.

She did it then, snuggling in his arms. They watched the spring clouds float by, content to sit in the noon sunshine. It really was a nice day.

"Lazy as a pair of Naras," he laughed again. Ino sighed, on the verge of sleep, "Mm-hmm."

"But that's okay."

"Mm-hmm."

They stayed in the field for the better part of the day, leaving only when the sun had sunken dangerously low in the sky. Both knew that there were few things worse than Mrs. Yamanaka's wrath when someone was late to dinner. The whole family devoured the meal, Ino included. It had been in the days before her habitual dieting: in other words, before she had met Uchiha Sasuke.

When the feasting came to a halt and everyone was feeling full and sleepy, Ino leaned back in her chair and listened to her parents talk. About missions, about friends, about the shop, about a dryer, about her…

Obviously they thought she was a good deal sleepier than she actually was. Then the talking was done, and her father lifted her with the abnormal strength of a shinobi and hauled her off to bed. Her parents tucked her in, each wishing her a good night.

"You start at the Ninja Academy tomorrow, Ino," Inoichi whispered, "You're going to make us very proud, I just know it."

Ino nodded, "I will."

"Is that a promise?"

Ino's eyes closed, "Yep."

She slept, and her parents tiptoed from the room, shutting the door softly behind them.

* * *

That day had been many years ago. Since then, Yamanaka Ino had become a ninja, and done her very best to uphold her promise. Inoichi was there every step of the way, laughing, coaching, and cheering her on from the sidelines. She told him everything; how hard it was being on a team with 'a fatty and a lazy-ass moron,' the difficulty of getting good hair-care products these days, even how she felt about Sasuke.

And the best part was that he listened. He knew when to give advice and when to keep his mouth shut (mostly with the parts concerning Sasuke and hair. That was Mrs. Yamanaka's department).

He saw his daughter grow under his watchful eye. Before he could blink, she a 5 ft. 7" member of the jounin elite with a fiery temper and the blondest hair Konoha had ever seen. She eventually moved out of the house, into her own apartment, but they still talked as often as possible; a daddy's girl to the end.

He was always there, and he always would be. Spring, winter, summer, or fall, he was there and laughing. His body aged well, allowing him to take missions on and off well into his forties. He jokingly told his family and friends that he would never retire.

The ironic thing was that he never did.

The day came, when winter melted away into every Yamanaka's favorite season, and the cherry blossoms were blooming. A unit of shinobi was returning from a mission in Sand, and Ino stood there waiting for a familiar blonde head to bob into view.

They had told her that over half of the ninjas in that unit weren't coming back. But that meant nothing to her, because he would always come back. She stood waiting deep into the night. Everything was cold in the crisp spring darkness, battering her down and stealing the warmth from her cheeks. In the end, the ruthless frost drove her inside, and when she returned to her apartment at 4:00 A.M., she sank into bed and slept.

There was no one to shut the door behind her.

* * *

"Hey, lady, open up! Hey!"

Ino groaned. Someone had a lot of nerve, knocking on her door this early in the morning, and they weren't exactly being polite about it. The shouts bore their way into her sleep-muffled ears. It was a man's voice. He was getting louder and more insistent by the second. She pulled the covers over her head and scowled into the pillow. There was no way anything short of an earthquake could get her out of her bed. Still, she mused, it was a bit odd. Who would be visiting at-

"Oh, no."

Her eyes snapped open. She sat up in bed with a jolt, casting off the blankets and bounding for the door. She dashed through the apartment, tripping over various misplaced objects in the process. The door opened with a colossal crash, which didn't do much for her headache.

"Can I help you?"

The man looked her over, wrinkling his nose at her mussed mop of hair and the scent of stale alcohol on her breath, "Yeah, you can help me by giving me your rent."

Ino's stomach sank unpleasantly. She fiddled nervously with the brass doorknob,

"Yeah, I'm… sorry about that. You see, things have been kinda tight lately, and… Look, I promise you I'll have it by next week-"

The man cut her off with a stiff shake of his head, "No can do, sister. Pony up the cash, or get packing."

By now Ino's headache had reached migraine proportions. She massaged her temples in exasperation, "I can't; not now. Come back tomorrow, or… I don't know…"

The man squinted at her, recognition dawning on his features.

"Hey, you're that Yamanaka chick! Haven't gotten a mission in two months, right? All the jounins have been talking about it. They say you don't show up at the meetings."

"Really?" She sighed. This was all she needed; scruffy landlords reminding her of just how far she had fallen.

He continued, oblivious to her sarcasm, "They say you've started drinking. Say you're washed up…," a nasty smile spread across his face, "… Say your daddy died."

The headache was immediately forgotten. Ino stared at the man, taking in the movement of his mouth, the movement of his stomach rising and falling with his laughter. The rest of the world sank into the background, leaving her alone in the sound of his laugh.

It was as swift as lightning. Ino's body moved of its own accord, and with speed that would have put Lee to shame, the man was up against the wall, arms pinned painfully behind his back, his eyes as wide as saucers. Ino stood perfectly still. Then she leaned in towards him; slowly, deliberately, menacingly.

She needed to say something. She had been going to say something. The alcohol rolled off her ragged breaths, close enough to ruffle the man's hair. The seconds stretched into minutes. Time was frozen and still. Only the man moved, his mouth opening and closing like a dying fish.

_Say something…_

Instead, it was the man who spoke. The word came from his mouth in a raspy garble.

"Wet."

His eyes were on her cheeks. Ino placed a free hand against her face, fingering the salty-warm tears. She blinked.

Her hands slipped back to her sides, the man sank to the concrete, coughing, and Ino ran.

* * *

There were lots of people out on the square, enjoying the mild spring weather. They parted like water for a ninja who was obviously in the midst of something urgent. Ino was going too fast for anyone to notice the dark circles under her eyes, or the fact that she was still in her night clothes. She was a blonde blur, scrambling over cobblestones with apparently deliberate haste.

There was nowhere to go. Or maybe there were too many places to go and it was impossible to decide. She couldn't go back, and there was nowhere else. Everything, the entire shield of apathy she had created, was crumbling fast. All she knew was that she was running; running like she hadn't run in months. Her muscles soon remembered their training, and she fell into a practiced pace.

'_If I keep this up, I could run for thirty minutes without stopping.'_

Ino shook the thought from her head. It was academic speculation, really. It didn't matter how far she could run if there was nowhere to run to.

Her body again took control again, leading her down crowded streets and twisted alleyways until at last she was completely lost. It was almost funny, how you could live here your whole life and still not know your way around.

She pounded down the pavement, rounding the corner into the dark space between two condos until a wall of bricks rose two feet in front of her. A dead end.

She stopped, brushing a hand alongside the porous stone. It was cold and unyielding beneath her touch. For some reason this seemed wrong. She slammed her fist repeatedly into the wall, ignoring the pain.

"Damn."

She continued to pelt the wall, her cries growing louder and wilder, resonating through the alley.

"Damn it," she breathed, "Damn it, damn it, _damn it_!"

Her fingers were sore and bloody when she finally stopped. The tears that had been held back for so long found an outlet there in the solitude and silence.

With battered arms folded around her legs and her head resting upon her knees, Yamanaka Ino wept.

Ino wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there when light found her. The sun moved out from behind its veil, allowing rays of yellow warmth to spill over the top of the wall.

She tilted her head up towards it. The light played across her cheeks and dried her tears.

Of course.

She almost laughed at the sudden idea. She was a shinobi, after all. A broken, worthless, out of work shinobi, but a ninja nonetheless. She could jump it.

Her feet were already ahead of her, coiled for the jump. They cut loose, propelling her with oiled ease over the top of the wall. Without bothering to see what was below, she tumbled down into the other side.

Right into a rose bush.

"Oh, sh-" Ino braced herself for the sure-to-be excruciatingly painful impact. The thorny shrub rushed up to meet her, baring its cruel needles. Dimly, Ino classified the plant as a tea rose, one of the species' most woody varieties. This was not going to be pretty. She shut her eyes.

The impact never came. Instead there was a whirlwind of glossy-green leaves and white petals, and two arms caught her firmly around the waist, inches above the bush. Ino opened her eyes and found her staring into Naruto's; which were every bit as blue as her own, but not nearly as mortified. Bewildered was a more appropriate word. He cocked his head to the side, eyebrows raised with mild disbelief.

"Ino-san?"

"H-" she stuttered. Her senses abandoned her completely. All she could manage was a bleak whisper, "Hokage-sama."

**-**

**Author's notes:** I started this fic for several reasons. Namely that, despite the fact that I find Ino to be annoying sometimes, I really like her good side. She can be courageous, kind, and intelligent; when she wants to be. (Heh)

Also, ever since I found out about Inoichi, I knew that Ino would be a great daddy's girl. They look and act eerily alike, and who better to teach Ino how to be a ninja? Most dads settle for baseball, but that's one of the advantages to living in Naruto's world. Practices with your father can get a lot more interesting. (Hey, Dad, watch me burn that log to a cinder! Okay, kiddo, but be sure you aim in the right direction. We don't want to repeat what happened last time…) XD

This also happens to be my first time writing something so dark. Normally I tend to lean toward the more light-hearted. But when the idea first came into my head for a fic involving Naruto, Ino, and a garden, I had to find a plausible way to make it happen. Inoichi really turned out to play a lot larger role than I'd intended.


End file.
